Still at the Vertex? OCZ Vertex 3 480GB review

In the short time SSDs have been affordable to mere mortals there’s been one brand name that has been synonymous with high performance at a premium price point. OCZ’s Vertex range has constantly maintained its lead at the top of the NAND-powered pile and the Vertex 3 is the latest iteration in the series. Bringing SATA 6Gb/s support to the table does the latest Vertex drive still have what it takes to compete in a market flooded with SandForce controllers?

We were supplied with the biggest Vertex 3 on the market with a huge 480GB of storage. Generally speaking the more memory on an SSD the lower the price per GB but the Vertex 3 doesn’t play by those rules. At a very expensive $2.60 per GB this is the most expensive SATA-powered SSD in our testing and it’s all thanks to the pricey Intel memory employed here. The Intel 29F32B08JCME2 just happens to be of the synchronous variety which raises costs alongside performance. However we’ve seen other drives use similar memory such as the Corsair Force GT but at considerably cheaper price points. Does the Vertex 3’s performance justify this price hike?

Looking at larger sequential performance the answer is no — this drive is slightly slower than most other SATA 6Gb/s drives in the sequential read and write tests. However as the file sizes start to shrink the performance begins to climb giving this drive the highest overall performance and up to 30% faster than its nearest competitors in some tests. As a result we have to once again give the ultimate performance crown back to OCZ and its Vertex brand.

Available from OCZ retailing for $1250.APC rating: 9/10 (Editor’s Choice)